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My 4 year-old daughter collaborated with us on the We Are Home Collection

by Celine Semaan Vernon

The We Are Home is a collection that is close to my heart. As some of you may know, I fled a war torn Lebanon with my family when I was three years old to seek refugee status in Canada. When I returned to Lebanon in the 90's, I began learning more about my country. But the notion of Home always seemed to be mysterious to me. I grew up feeling like an outsider and enjoyed playing the anthropologist of every culture I encountered, even my own.

The Key we created for this collection is an homage to the refugee tradition to wear the key the home one leaves behind. For We Are Home, I also wanted to keep our signature scarves of the prints from NASA and explore a new way to inspire our mission.

For the scarf with the image of Earth taken by DISCOVR, I was inspired by the drawings of my daughter Sila Grey who is four years old. She always draws smiling people holding hands, so one day I asked her "Could you make me a lot of these people for my work?" To this she answered: "No! I don't want to work." Wise child. I had to bribe her with candy to draw for me. I love this print so much not only for her drawings but because it symbolizes so much and is in its own right the very essence of childhood. An homage to the Syrian refugees's stolen childhood during this past four years of war.

10% of this scarf funds ANERA's Education initiative in Lebanon. Learn more here.